S&S Cycle - Vintage Motorcycle TECH TALK

Pretty much anything not covered by the topics above. Short lived production bikes or vehicles, Electrical, Tires, Paint, Brakes, etc. Use this for tech questions, and "Shoot the Bull" for general conversation, no tech.

YES ITS TRUE, I AM MAKING MY OWN 1920 Thru 24 FLXI SIDECAR FRAME (FULL FLXIBLE) FROM AN ORIGINAL FRAME. I AM IN THE PROCESS OF MAKING MY MOLDS FROM THE ORIGINAL CASTINGS. I'M BEHIND IN MY MOLD WORK..BUT WORKING AS FAST AS I CAN! THIS LAST WINTER HAS PUT ME WAY BEHIND SCHEDULE DUE TO ALL KINDS OF REASONS BEYOND MY CONTROL.

MY CASTINGS WILL CARRY THE SCARES AND SURFACE TEXTURE OF THERE PAST LIKE THERE ORIGINALS. THE ORIGINAL LETTERS AND HALLMARKS,THE FIRST THING A AMCA JUDGE OR ANYONE WITH EXPERIENCE WILL LOOK FOR. I HAVE ALSO INCORPRTATED THE "FLASH MARKS" IN THEM LESS THEIR SERIAL NUMBERS.

MY FLXI FRAME WILL FIT THE 1936 THRU 57 HARLEY DAVIDSON STYLE RIGID FRAME (BIG TWIN) AND IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT FLXIs YOU KNOW!!! THESE ARE RARE BIRDS. I STILL REMEMBER AS A YOUNG MAN THE FIRST TIME I SAW ONE OF THESE, (LANCE TIDWELL'S IN LaHAMBRA, CA) IN THE EARLY 80s I WAS HOOKED FROM THEN ON, AND IT HAS BEEN A PASSION OF MINE SINCE.

I HAVE BEEN KICKING AROUND DOING A COMMERCIAL BODY FOR MY COMMERICAL STYLE FLXI FRAME AND WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE.....

IF YOU DO YOUR RESEARCH YOU WILL FIND THAT THESE WERE USED BY RACERS AND DOMESTIC AS WELL AS BUSINESS PEOPLE EXTENSIVELY BACK IN THE 20'S THRU THE 30'S OR SO FOR DELIVERY USES.....ETCI AM PLANNING ON BUILDING 4 FOR MYSELF (1 FOR MY DAUGHTER AND NEW GRANDBABY, 1 FOR MY SON & I, 1 COMMERICAL AND 1 RACING)

I KNOW THERE AREN'T THAT MANY FLXI ENTHUSIATS OUT THERE YET, BUT I'LL BET ONCE PEOPLE START SEEING THEM ON THE ROADS THERE WILL BE A HUGE INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERESTED AND HOOKED, JUST LIKE I WAS. I'M REAL THANKFUL FOR SITES LIKE THIS ONE, WHICH I'VE BEEN A MEMBER OF FOR YEARS NOW...SO THAT THOSE OF US WHO ARE INTO OLD MOTORCYCLES AND SIDECARS HAVE A PLACE TO SHARE INFORMATION. TAKE CARE

Last edited by vltonybob on Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

HaHaHa PA. You two keep me laughing. It's great to find people with the same sense of humor I have. This Ol' man sure does enjoy yours and Cotton's posts on so many subjects....I thank you, you two (of so many) are what makes this site worth while coming too.

I've never seen a FLXI in use until i saw that pic, but I HAVE ridden somrthing similar. There have been various attempts to make light, flexible banking sidecar frames for grasstrack racing here in the UK, mostly using small platforms with the passenger mainly spending his time on the pillion ( UK grasstrack racing until the 70s went anti-clockwise, with the sidecar on the left ( 'Kent style' ); solos still do this but the main sidecar classes these days either do this or go clockwise with a left-hand chair or antioclockwise with a right-hand chair ( 'Continental' style ) )

they were banned as too successful and contrary to the spirit of the sport, but still appear occasionally making demonstration runs at meetings )

the Germans had a classs for banking sidecars in the 50s and 60s where the chair was controlled by the passenger using a big steering wheel... these were extra scary because the passenger and driver had to be fully in unison, and if the passenger got 'filled in' by flying shale - quite common - the results were about what you might expect, and resulted in them being banned after a number of serious accidents

there have also been occasional attempts to produce such devices for the road, mainly to exploit a one-time anomaly in British law whereby a 'Learner' could ride any size machine with a sidecar. There was one such called a 'Sidewinder' and I once rode one round the track hitched onto one of my solo Jawas at a VMCC meeting, it was seriously scary and I have never repeated the experiment!! We tied it on set-up day, just to see what it was like, and it was pretty wild. One problem among many is that it requires a completely diffferent racing line to the fixed chairs, so if you aren't out in front, you have all kinds of problems right there....

Shoot, a man could have a good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff...

hi im coming to the states shortly i would like to be in touch with the gentleman re the flxi cars,i would love to see the illustrations of the various styles of bodies as done by Flxi,my 1926 Chief had a indian body on it,the flxi bodies i have seen weremuch better looking if i remember correctly.So where does the project stand at the moment?look forward to hear from you .Keir Helberg

WHOA THERE PARTNER!! Where did you get the idea I was making COMPLETE Flxi sidecars ??

My goal is to cast my parts and build myself some FLXI frames. At this stage, I have almost all my molds made and am working on building the equipment I need to cast my parts. As usual, my time table is somewhat dependant on others' work., and this continues to be a challenge, as I am not the most patient soul on earth...I have to deal with it like most people do.

If a body is what you are interested in, I suggest you contact Robert Jones in Ohio as he has several body styles that he is thinking of reproducing. He made me a SPEEDSTER racing body which has a tilted door. He is also getting into front and rear springs for the FLXI. He might also have attachments/brackets to attach a Flxi frame to the 1926 Indian Chief or your 1920 ACE motorcycle. He into the EARLY skooters plus he also has more body illustrations than I do . If you have any questions send me a email at....flyinflxies @ yahoo.com HOWEVER, Im doing some bodies in which im interested in to give people ideas so they might want to design something for their needs as well etc.....

PLEASE keep in mind...this is my hobby not a business...and besides I gave my WORD to Robert and we have not had time to talk about the details yet SORRY for things have been crazy this year for everybody.......

I am hoping to be making my FLXI frames by mid-summer if all goes well (keeping my fingers crossed here) I am also waiting on S&S cycle who now started to carry Race Frame Engineering frames and castings to get back with me on the frame castings so I can build my frames. I have been waiting on Race Frame Engineering for over a year, so you see how it goes.....and NO im not going to cast skooter frame castings just FLXI frame castings AND besides S&S cycle will be selling the 1936 thru 57 OEM style frames that will fit my FLXI frames.

I hope to have a BASIC web page up soon.... and DO-IT-YOURSELFER guidelines and contacts of all the people and businesses as I use in there sections on a LATER webpage and much more.... Will let you know here when that happens with the website names.

Thanks for your interest.

Last edited by vltonybob on Sun Oct 26, 2008 8:48 am, edited 2 times in total.

Hello ALL, my new website will be up in a few days maybe even a week or two... SORRY for all the mistakes on on the last webpage ....the NEW website will be under construction most of the time for awhile... as im learning to do my own website, it has taking lots more time then what I wanted to spend ... I just finish it and I need to proof read it and fix any mistakes and make sure this is the way I want to present it ... then download it, so check it out at http://flxisidecars.com/ ENJOY h.d.ryder Thank you for sharing your FLXI pictures with us all, looks GREAT....I hope to see more of them here on Flatheadpower....

Last edited by vltonybob on Fri Mar 13, 2009 11:28 am, edited 5 times in total.

Hello Everyone....Im back.Sorry for all the delays but However the web site is up and all I have to do is figure out some stuff and get it to the other pages to where they link etc....Please keep in mind that this is a joint adventure between Robert Jones,Gene Harper and myself even tho it has never been talked about between us HOWEVER,this website is basicly to help others find out more about FLXI sidecars and it also caters to the do-it-yourself'er in some areas plus helpful hints...you must remember Robert is into Oldstalgia and Im into Newstalgia so please adjust this site to your needs.Im trying to make this site for ALL and if you have any info or photos you want to share just send a email...I have a PIX section for that too...and that section will cater to the average home builder who wants to share his FLXI project with everyone after I get the bugs worked out...PLEASE check out Roberts site in my Icon section under ACCURATE REPRODUCTIONS and while your there check out my other sites that I enjoy...if your interested in more go to MORE section and there is more outlets that might help you. I hope this will answer a lot of your questions and if not go to FAQ section. Y'All ENJOY now and take care